(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compact, hand held hair dryers.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
For drying wet hair, electrical devices are used which intake cool air, heat the air and exhaust the air from the dryer to dry hair. There is a growing interest in hair dryers which are for use in the home. The hair dryer should be compact in order to have utility not only in hairdressers' salons, but also, in homes.
Various types of compact, manually operated hair dryers are known. The best known ones are fitted either with a radial or with a tangential air fan or blower (see German Offenlegungsschrift No. 26 18 816 or German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2 307 992). Neither of these types of air blowers are, however, suitable for constructing hair dryers in a rod-shaped or tubular form.
For portable hair drying hoods a rod-shaped heater-blower unit has already been proposed. One end of such a unit can be connected to the hood (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 1 902 662). This heater-blower unit consists of a motor, a plurality of heater coils and an air blower. These elements of the unit are arranged successively along the axis of the blower. Here the air is intaked by a blower which is disposed at the lower end of the hair dryer and which is remote from the drying hood. The air is conveyed over the motor and the heater coils. However, this heater-blower unit may only be used in conjunction with a drying hood.
Furthermore, there exists a hair care accessory for domestic hair dryers that has a tubular element. One end of this is constructed so that it can be connected by a quick-release coupling to the outlet of the hose of the hair dryer (U.S. Pat. No. 3,322,144). The other end of this tubular element can also be releasably connected to hair-curlers having various sizes. However, this hair care accessory cannot be used as a separate hand-held hair dryer.
An approximately rod-shaped manual hair dryer that can be used without additional accessories is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,774. This hair dryer is designed so that all of its essential parts, that is, the motor, fan and the heater unit are arranged so as to be spaced from the grip part, whereby a user cannot feel any significant heat on the grip during operation. This construction can only achieve an approximately tubular shape due to the grouping together of the motor, fan and heater unit. The housing at the end which accommodates these parts is substantially larger than the other end of the housing.
In addition, there is a known hand-held hair dryer which has a tubular housing (German Offenlegungsscrift No. 24 09 019). However, in this hair dryer, the intake opening and the exhaust opening are perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the dryer.
Finally, there is a known air-heating apparatus for hair treatment which includes a tubular housing containing a motor, a fan and screw-shaped heating coils (Swiss Patentschrift No. 568 733). The manufacturing costs of this air appliance are, however, relatively high.
An object of the invention is to provide a hair dryer which enables drying of the hair to be carried out comfortably, which can be used as an accessory for drying hoods and which can be assembled easily.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hair dryer which is compact and which has a tubular shape.